SingPost mustn't let US debacle douse its e-commerce ambition

"BETTER late than never" may have flashed through some minds, when Singapore Post (SingPost) said in early April that it was putting its loss-making US subsidiaries on the market.

The sad saga of TradeGlobal and Jagged Peak will always be a story of "damned if you do, damned if you don't". Chief executive Paul Coutts, who inherited a turbulent company in mid-2017, did his bounden duty trying to turn them around but to no avail. SingPost has had to take an impairment of S$185 million for TradeGlobal back in 2017.

Though the problems with the ailing US assets pre-dated Mr Coutts' arrival, he behaved like a first responder who reaches a grisly accident scene and dutifully performs cardiopulmonary resuscitation despite a grim prognosis. Under his watch, investments like automation were introduced to try to turn around the US units.